How I Solved Problems with My Curtain/Windows

The Dilemma:

First, since a man built this house, he didn't realize the issues with putting a window directly in the corner against a wall.

Plus, with it being a window seat, there is no head room for curtains to be installed inside the recessed area!

And, there are two identical windows on opposing walls in this living room.

After much thought, I custom ordered cellular blinds that I

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The New Look in our Sitting Room

Greeting, friends!

Recently, my husband and I did a little DIY project in our sitting room that I wanted to share!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love decorating mantels.  And, while we have a fireplace in our great room that I love to decorate, I have wanted to create the "illusion" of one in our sitting room, too ... giving me another spot to have fun with for the seasons and/or holidays.

After weeks of scouring Craigslist, this gem came home with us!

Admittedly, we were pretty clueless how to "properly" attach this heavy surround to the wall.  But, after getting a $400 estimate from a contractor to do it for us (um, no thanks), we decided we needed to learn and turned to good ol' Youtube, finding a super easy tutorial.  

That's when my husband got to work.  He first used his Dremel to cut out the base molding on the back wall so that the surround would sit flush against it.  I then placed a thin piece of birch wood on the floor to resemble a hearth. 

I then nailed a piece of faux brick panel to the wall, and then my husband mounted three 1" x 36" pieces of wood (or mounting strips) to the wall.  He then screwed the surround into the mounting strips ... and voila!

After he was finished, I then painted the faux brick panel with Annie Sloane's "Pure White" chalk paint and added 4" trim panels beside and below the legs and header.

Here is the result!  Well the "almost" end result.

I couldn't wait to decorate it ... naturally, a coastal-themed *mantelscape* was in order.

I was happy to dust off our boat for its "maiden voyage" onto our new mantel!

Silver candlesticks from IKEA paired with natural branches finished it off.

And, for the crowning touch above the mirror, I made a little sign ... 

encouraging you to "relax" a bit in here.

Over on the left, I placed our duck egg accent chest in front of the window and framed it with my favorite curtains that used to hang in our sunroom.

Another ship came floating in to complete this little vignette:

Over on the right (where the blue accent chest used to sit), I pushed our antique "chalk painted" secretary in from the foyer to balance the weight of the windows on the left side.

After my pieces were all in place, I realized the room needed *something* else ... that's when the bright coral pillows appeared.

I then layered summery floral pillows over them just for fun.  

You might have noticed that I brought the seascape prints in from our sunroom, too!  Of course, this means that changes had to be made in that room now that I had left it bare ... oops.  I'll share those changes soon.

I can't thank my sweet husband enough for helping my vision come to life and, admittedly, can't wait to splash Fall on it and add cozy candles on the hearth ... is that bad?!

So, if you've wanted to add a "fireplace," you can always add the illusion of one by mounting a surround to your wall ... Youtube will teach you how to do it!  ;)

Thanks for stopping by ...

I'm joining:

Savvy Southern Style/WUW

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Twin Set of Chairs

In an effort to clean

out extra furniture

that I have stored

in my attic space

above my hobby garage...


I came upon these two

twins...




Well, I am only showing one here, but there are two. I don't even remember where I got these (that's pretty bad)! Tired, dirty, and missing cane seats...on the bright side, they are sturdy and get my creative juices flowing!



I decided on, yes,

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Inspiring Eminent Artist: Safal Chitre

Namste my dear friends and readers!! How have you been. 

Last month I was super busy with my work. It had been roller coaster ride for me but life is back on track, I really don't know for how long as I have several important things to do and share some exciting news with you all. Right now blogging has taken back seat but still you can expect some sporadic posts on my blog. Thanks to all creative and talented bunch of people who keep writing to me. It's because of all those lovely people that I can't stop blogging. One such beautiful and colourful mail I received sometime ago and I couldn't stop myself drafting a post about this wonderful artist. A self motivated and self taught artist who is shining our country's name abroad, Safal Chitre.

Safal a very warm welcome on 3D. Please tell us more about yourself. 

First of all I would like to Thank Disha for featuring me on her wonderful blog!

I am Safal Chitre. Currently live in USA, originally from Mumbai. I am self-motivated artist. By education I am an Engineer however, always attracted towards art world.

 

I have always been fascinated by the Handicrafts and Art. I  love to decorate my house with handmade stuffs then it could be paintings or craft. The simplicity and the elegance of warli style impressed me so I learnt warli art. From last 4 years I have started my artistic journey and it is flourishing. Apart from traditional warli style, I am trying to give modern look to it  by adding  colors and patterns on various mediums. Now I have found my own style that I can say as Contemporary Warli.

Before starting warli, I was thinking this art is simple to work with but friends honestly it is not that easy, you will require lot of patience and dedication. And then see the miracle, you will fall in love with its beauty and rhythm. Although I practiced this art using different mediums such as oil, acrylic, ink on clay, wall, fabrics, glass, canvases; I love to work with wood and clay as well. Apart from paintings; I am more interested in making home decor stuffs. It inspires me to paint even more when I look at my artwork enhancing beauty of my home.

By getting shortlisted among professional artists in art galleries in USA from various countries and states, I am getting wonderful exposure to showcase my talent. This gives me great satisfaction that I am introducing people here this beautiful tribal art of India which is not even that much well known in India too. For my success my husband has main role in my life, without his support I could not take my hobby to professional level.

In future apart from warli I would love to learn and try other folk arts too.

Thank you Safal for sharing your creative journey with us. I wish you good luck!

Dear readers I hope you enjoyed reading about Safal as much as I did. To see more of her artworks, you can visit her Facebook page Safal Art Studio & her blog Safal Arts

It's time to say good bye. I'll try to post more frequently. Keep visiting this space :)

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French Chandelier Love

Do you ever WANT for no real reason,

Other than...

You just do?

That was the case with

                   my dining area chandelier.










This is the one I am referring to...


It came with the house and I have gotten many questions over the years as to where I bought it.

It was in the formal dining room when we moved in,


But we use that room as an office and so




I moved the

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My House & Gardens ~ Part II

If you have seen my last post on My House & Gardens ~ Part I (Or you can just click on highlighted words to go back and see it), I showed you the front of the house and yard.





Let me refresh you on what you will be seeing. This is from Google Earth of my home. The white outlines are the rock borders of the flowerbeds that you will see. Focus on the left of the this picture because that is

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A Safe Haven

You know I firmly believe that everyone can have a beautiful and safe home. Often when I pick up the newspaper and skim through the headlines, I wonder how people chose to protect their home. The recent rampages of miscreants all over the country has crinkled everyone’s brows.

I remember a rather unfortunate incident which took place while moving in to my new apartment. Occupancy in my block at that time was barely 30% and to add to the insecurity of the place was the ongoing hardware and plumbing works. It was a paradox of situations- the lower number of people in the apartment and the number of handymen during the day led to the higher chance that something could go wrong. A couple moving in and had so many people adding “finishing touches” to their apartment, that in the chaos, they didn’t notice when valuables slowly began to disappear.

Keeping all this in mind, I would like to highlight some issues which could ensure a safer environment for you and your family:

• Buying a good quality deadbolt lock for the main door and at least six lever locks for the other ones must be your utmost priority while moving in to a new place.
• Make sure you have a peephole in the main door so that you can ensure your safety from unknown people.
• Installing a video door phone is one of the best things to do. Besides, keeping a track of your visitors, this system allows for a two-way communication process and ensures added safety. It’s a savior if you have kids at home ready to open the door at every bell. Picture this, the doorbell rings and you are not expecting a visitor, now before you open the door, just put on the camera and you will see who is at the other side of the door. If you don’t recognise the person, you can communicate with them to find out who they are and if it’s safe to the door. This system not only gives you security, it also cuts the amount of time you interact with vendors who may be offering a service you aren’t interested in.

• Locking your house every time you leave is a habit worth inculcating. Keeping a light on when you leave the house in the evenings is an old technique we all use to make our homes look occupied. Oh, and it still works!
• Have valuables, jewellery or cash at home? Then it’s time to invest in a home safe to keep those things we hold precious with us always.
• Keeping spare keys of your house under the doormat, in a planter, in mailbox or other places is a common habit most of us possess. Getting rid of this one does not hurt!

• Security systems such as keyless locks, locks with fingerprint recognition, CCTV cameras, video door phones and security alarm, to name a few, are great options to enhance both home and organizational securities. Godrej has a range of CCTV systems that are affordable and effective.

A lot of people complain about the miscreant nature of contemporary society and how trust and faith are major issues today. Security should be the most prioritized issues in everyone’s minds. However, a lot of people that one’s security comes from oneself and it is only a matter of correctly strategizing which can ensure a peaceful and secure life for you.

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